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This is an emotionally resonant book about a boy who loses his father. The reader doesn't know how the boy loses his father. Maybe he died, maybe he went to prison (as the author's father did), or maybe he was forced to leave his family for some other reason. He says, "I'm sorry I will not be coming home," so we can assume it's not a deployment or temporary disruption. But he does write his son a letter encouraging him to be good and be himself, despite the absence of the father. A truly bittersweet story about the love of a parent who's not there.

For one little boy, the day doesn't begin until his father knocks on the door and the boy leaps into his arms. Yet one morning, "the knock never comes." Through the changing hues of the expressive collage art, readers can see the boy's sadness at his father's continued absence… until a letter arrives from the father, reminding the boy that even though they're apart, "as long as you become your best, the best of me still lives in you." While the author's note explains that the boy's father is away in prison, this poignant yet comforting book will speak to children who are separated from a parent for all sorts of reasons.

When Bryan Collier writes in his Note that “This book is not just about loss, but about hope, making healthy choices, and not letting our past define our future,” he’s talking to kids everywhere that are dealing with a deck that’s stacked against them. They don’t get enough books, those kids, about lives like their own. Fortunately, once in a great while, a book comes along that fulfills that gaping need. This year, it’s this book. Next year? Who knows? But as long as there are children struggling along without their parents, Knock Knock is going to have a job to do.

Summary

It was the same every morning. The boy would pretend to be sleeping when his father went “Knock Knock” on the door. Then he’d “surprise” his father by leaping into his arms once he came in the room. That is, until the day his father didn’t knock anymore. The man is simply gone, poof! Like he was never there at all. Bewildered and lost, the boy writes his father a letter and leaves it on his desk in the desperate hope that maybe his dad’s in the apartment when the boy’s not home. He tells his dad that he was hoping that when he got older he’d teach him how to dribble a ball or shave or drive or fix a car even. Then, one day, there’s a letter from his father sitting on the desk. “I am sorry I will not be coming home,” it begins. It then proceeds to encourage the boy to seek his own path and grow to manhood without him. “Knock Knock with the knowledge that you are my son and you have a bright, beautiful future.” Years later when the boy has grown, his father returns to him. In his Author’s Note, Daniel Beaty discusses the effect his own father’s incarceration had on him when he was only three. As he puts it, “This experience prompted me to tell the story of this loss from a child’s perspective and also to offer hope that every fatherless child can still create the most beautiful life possible.”